News

IMPA Council Meeting - November 2018

This year’s council meeting considered IMPA’s vision for the next five years

New VPs have been appointed into the council lineup

Several projects have been planned for 2019

IMPA’s council meeting this November took place once again at the now-established venue of Windsor in the UK, close to Heathrow airport and home to the Royal family from time to time. The colourful town plays host to the Association’s annual strategy meeting which is set to agree the programme for the year ahead.

This meeting had special significance as Susan Koefoed, IMPA’s CEO, had set out her desire for the council to look in the future and vision-plan where IMPA would be in five years. Ambitious development plans were put in place for all of the Association’s five pillars: education, marine stores guide, new initiatives including IMPA ACT, events and membership. The meetings included sessions on a new website for the Association with members of the secretariat office joining for presentations and brainstorming, as well as break-out groups exploring different approaches to the main issue of adding value to the industry. For 2019, IMPA will embark on the development of a Supplier Evaluation and Audit Programme and the council also gave the mandate to further look into developing the education programme for maritime supply chain management. The latter will include in-house training options in the future, as well as further specialised sessions.

To aid all these plans, CEO Koefoed appointed three new VPs into the council lineup. Marco Spandri becomes VP of marketing, ambassadors and membership, and will share the responsibilities of the latter with Jennifer Schlemeier who now looks at industry engagement and events as well. Yuzo Koike naturally heads up the MSG portfolio and Jesper Larsen, having recently moved to Singapore to head up purchasing at Anglo Eastern, has confirmed his intention to continue as VP of innovation, new initiatives, regulation and compliance. Rob Scharff continues in the role of VP of education, an area that he is very passionate about and of great significance to the Association. Last but not least, Simon Potter, IMPA’s ambassador for the UK, was co-opted onto the council, following to be ratified at the 2019 Annual General Meeting. Simon will support on several key projects in the coming year. Both Ryan Dalgado and Bård Bjørløw have now stepped down from the council as they both need to focus on their daily work.

All in all, Ms Koefoed was delighted with the progress made in the meeting, saying that this was “a fantastic couple of days that have generated great new ideas for development of the Association. IMPA must continue to reflect the needs of the industry and provide real value. This has always been our focus and we are set to deliver”.

IMPA’s COO who co-ordinated the meetings added that this two-day session “reflects another turn in the Association’s history with a huge agenda and programme to be developed over the coming years. Things have never looked better”.

More news on the meeting and plans will follow in MT over the coming issues, as well as on the IMPA website, www.impa.net